In the stockyards of the sky

I am boot-horned into seat 37B at 31,000 feet, massaging numbness from my legs when I taste a wetness at the corners of my mouth. It is a salty wetness and I realize that I am crying. In fact, I am about to bawl.

This is embarrassing. My mind shifts to overdrive, thinking of how to conceal choking sobs from my fellow passengers.

Hide beneath a blanket? Airlines don’t provide them unless you pay for them. Bury my head in a pillow? They no longer hand out pillows either.

I am not wearing a hoodie so that’s no help. Eye drops? Good idea but they are in a carry-on buried in a hopelessly overloaded overhead bin.

I wipe away the tears furtively, then pull myself together and question why I am crying on an airplane.

Studies confirm that people are more likely to cry on airplanes than on the ground. A survey from Virgin Atlantic found that 55 per cent of people admitted to being more emotional than normal when hurtling through the stratosphere.

No one seems to know why. Some say it could be the general anxiety of flying.

It is storming below so the flight is rocky. Also there are recent stories about aircraft engines flying apart because of metal fatigue.

Then there’s the crowded skies. Aviation data companies that track all the aircraft in our skies report an average 9,728 planes, carrying 1,270,406 passengers, in the sky at any given time.

The lightest day for air traffic in recent times was Jan. 1, 2017, when there were a peak 3,354 planes in the sky at the same time. The heaviest air traffic day was Aug. 5, 2016, when 12,856 planes carrying 1,590,929 people made radar screens look like spider webs.

But I am a trained private pilot, and understand all this stuff so it doesn’t make me anxious. Certainly not enough to cry.

Flight crews have observed that their passengers tend to cry more while watching movies.

A survey by Gatwick Airport in London found that 15 per cent of men and six per cent of women said they are more likely to cry watching an inflight movie than at home.

However, I don’t watch movies on airplanes. The movie screens now are in the seat back in front of you and the seats are so close that anyone wearing progressive lens eyeglasses gets a stiff neck trying to focus.

I wouldn’t be watching today’s movie anyway because the guy sitting next me says it is called The Shape of Water and is about a woman who dates a fish.

There is speculation that being in a pressurized cabin at high altitude affects levels of mood-regulating hormones serotonin and dopamine. The different atmosphere sends the hormones a bit wonky and the tears begin to flow.

But it’s not flying anxiety or rattled hormones that are dissolving me into a puddle of tears. It’s nothing to do with the airplane. It’s all about getting to the airplane.

Today’s airports are playgrounds for digital screens and torture chambers for passengers. The screens surround you, grinning and chortling as they dare you to approach.

There is no avoiding them. You must approach. They control whether you get baggage tags, a boarding pass, even passport clearance.

Only a digital screen can permit you to move into the next line of airport captives snaking its way through other banks of digital screens, humming scanners and silent hidden cameras. Seen from above the captives are unbroken lines wandering wearily through a maze in search of the Pharaoh’s Tomb.

The reward at the maze exit is a corridor of food booths where the traveller can replenish the 10,000 calories burned during the airport passage. The $38 for a Panini, small salad and a bottle of water is enough to make anyone cry.

The airlines say they are committed to reducing passenger stresses. Some are even considering sleeper berths for larger airplanes on longer haul routes. Just crawl in and sleep away the stresses and bad memories of the airport passage.

Sounds sweet but you can bet the prices will have you bawling.

Email: shaman@vianet.ca
Profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8FY3Y

The threat of untreated mental illness

It became obvious very quickly when a rental van deliberately ploughed into crowds of Toronto pedestrians that this was not a terrorist attack. Terrorists do not jump in front of armed police and beg them to shoot them in the head.

Television media was wetting itself hoping it was a terrorist incident. Terrorism makes for sensational television. Politicians and others interviewed seemed similarly inclined, emphasizing the word ‘attack.’

In fact, this was yet another incident of a mentally ill person who snapped, producing a tragedy of unthinkable proportions.

Terrorism gets more prominence than deadly acts by persons who are mentally ill. The attitude is that terrorists are an inherent evil to be exterminated while the mentally sick are aberrations best left to health care professionals to deal with.

No one is immune from terrorist acts these days, but at least we are reasonably well protected by national security and law enforcement services. More attention needs to be directed at how society can better protect itself from what many see as a growing epidemic of untreated mental illness.

Mental health problems are a public health concern around the world. The Global Burden of Disease study found that in 2016 there were 1.1 billion people suffering mental health and substance abuse disorders. Also, major depressive disorders ranked in the top 10 causes of illnesses in all but four countries worldwide.

Some epidemiologists say that at any given time up to 25 per cent of  our population suffers from a mental health problem serious enough to impair normal functioning.

Our federal government says that one in three Canadians experiences a mental health problem or substance abuse disorder in their lifetime. Plus, only 57 per cent of adults and 43 per cent of youth report a high capacity to deal with day to day demands and difficulties.

The mental health industry goes to great lengths to promote the message that the mentally ill are no more violent than anyone else. This might be true but it is a message designed to prevent the stigma of mental illness, which in itself is a worthy goal. There should be no stigma attached to mental disease.

In trying to eliminate the stigma, however, the message ignores the fact that untreated mentally ill people are potentially dangerous and a threat to society. Emphasis on untreated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in developed countries 35 to 50 per cent of people with severe mental health issues do not receive treatment. The figure is 76 to 85 per cent in developing countries.

The result is that we see more violence by mentally ill people not treated or who have ignored the treatments or medications prescribed for them.

The man who shot and killed six people at a Quebec City mosque in 2017 was not taking his anti-depressants as prescribed by his doctors. The man who shot and killed three RCMP officers in Moncton in 2014 had a history of drug problems.

The guy who drove a van into a crowd in Muenster, Germany last month had mental problems that were not being treated. Similarly the driver of a car that ploughed into Christmas shoppers in Melbourne, Australia last year had a history of mental problems and drug abuse.

A doctor for the gunman who killed 58 in Las Vegas last year believed his patient had a bipolar disorder and refused to take a prescription for anti-depressants.

The growing number of these incidents surely tell us that our society needs new thinking and new approaches to untreated mental illnesses. Finding ways of getting the homeless off the streets and into decent housing where they can get treatment is one example of attacking the root causes of the mental illness crisis.

The root causes are many. Poverty, racism, global human displacements, changing economies and wildly widening inequality are among the issues creating more anxiety and more depression. Not to mention a noticeable rise in intolerance for other peoples’ customs and views.

Yes, terrorism is a threat and society needs to keep up its guard to protect against it. But untreated mental illness also is a serious threat to us all and it needs more attention, more new thinking and more resources.

Email: shaman@vianet.ca
Profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8FY3Y

Burning hot, and crazy

I think I am going to be ill. My stomach is gurgling, starting to roll and its contents are about to take flight.

I’ve been researching what people put in their mouths, and why. What I have discovered is enough to make a cast iron stomach flip its pancakes.

For instance, earlier this year an Internet meme involving laundry pods surged in popularity and suddenly developed into the Tide Pod Challenge. Teenagers videoed themselves chewing and gagging on Tide Pods and posting the videos to You Tube where they dared others to do the same.

I’ve never snacked on Tide Pods myself so I wanted to find out why anyone would bite into a plastic packet of detergent. They contain polymers, hydrogen peroxide, ethanol and other nasty things that can burn the mouth, the esophagus and stomach.

The only answer seemed to be stupidity.

While researching I discovered the world of Internet food challenges. I guess I lead a sheltered life because I did not know there are hundreds of food challenges, ranging from eating the world’s hottest pepper to the Banana Sprite Challenge.

The latter involves quickly swallowing two bananas then chugging a litre of Sprite. The idea is to do that without vomiting, which is nearly impossible because the human stomach can hold only two cups of anything at any given moment.

There are a variety of hot pepper challenges in which participants are filmed eating the world’s hottest peppers. The preparations, including having large quantities of soothing milk at hand, are shown followed by the eating, then the reactions that can include intense sweating, pain contortions and hallucinations.

One guy who took  the hot pepper challenge landed in hospital with a burned throat and a collapsed lung.

Two years ago five middle school kids in Ohio were taken to hospital following a hot pepper challenge during lunch break.  The kids suffered skin rashes, sweating and unbearable discomfort. One boy temporarily lost his eyesight.

They had eaten Bhut Jolokia, also called the ghost pepper, which is a type of chilli pepper cultivated in India.

The ghost pepper was considered the world’s hottest pepper but apparently the Carolina Reaper now has that honour. Pepperhead, a hot pepper website found at https://pepperhead.com/top-10-worlds-hottest-peppers/, reports that the Reaper is 20 times hotter than a Habanero and 600 times hotter than a Jalapeno.

Imagine, 600 times hotter than a pepper that makes me sweat whenever I just drive past a grocery store that sells them!

There seems to be no end to the number of nasty food challenges. There’s the drinking Lemon Juice Challenge, the Chubby Bunny (stuffing numerous marshmallows in your mouth), the Gulping Milk Challenge and the Saltine Challenge in which participants try to stuff their mouths with crackers without spitting them out.

The list seems endless. These challenges are really stunts aimed at getting attention. Some are entertaining, even educational, but others are just plain dumb and can be dangerous.

Among the most gross and dangerous are the two Condom Challenges. These began several years back, presumably by beer drinking college students bored with studying, but have found renewed popularity this year.

One involves snorting a latex condom through the nose, into the back of the throat, then pulling it out through the mouth. Medical professionals of course warn that this is a really bad idea.

These things are rubbery and can easily get stuck in the throat, cutting off breathing and forcing a person to choke. Swallowing one can create serious medical complications.

That challenge went viral on You Tube in 2013 but You Tube later removed condom challenge videos.

The other condom challenge is the water drop. You fill a condom with water and drop it on your head. The idea is to have the condom envelope your head to leave the impression that you are immersed in the water inside the condom.

This kind of craziness is nothing new. Whacky challenges and bizarre stunts have been around for decades, if not centuries. They will continue and likely more elaborate and crazy than before.

We just hope that they come with some restraint and common sense. Because we live in a society that already offers too many ways to get hurt.

Email: shaman@vianet.ca
Profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8FY3Y

A Tale of Two Nations

It was a lifetime ago but I still remember my father bending his tall and lanky frame, reaching down to clasp my hand and walking me across the invisible line dividing Canada and the United States.

There was no control gate, no border check, no passports. We simply walked into Minnesota and a little store where he bought me ice cream.

It was a different time. Smaller governments, fewer regulations, fewer fears. National identities or the lines dividing them didn’t matter much to us. Canada was where we lived; the U.S. was our ancestral home.

It was back then that I formed the view that Canada and the United States were little different. The latter was bigger, bolder, more advanced in many ways but we shared much and were much the same.

Last week I saw how different we really are. The Humboldt Broncos hockey bus tragedy brought the differences sharply into focus.

Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast set hockey sticks on stoops and porches to show their grief for the 16 killed and 13 injured, and for all those suffering from the losses. There was Jersey Day when tens of thousands of Canadians, and others around the world, wore sports jerseys to show their sorrow, their sympathy and their support.

A GoFundMe campaign to help the affected families raised $11 million and counting.

Humboldt showed that despite vast distances, wildly different geography and many conflicting beliefs, Canadians come together when it matters. It also showed that we have not lost all our small-town values.

While Canadians drew together for Humboldt, our American neighbours continued their descent deeper into a miasma of distrust and disunity.

The storms of discord in the U.S. are so fast and furious it is hard to remember on Thursday what happened on Wednesday. Last week alone saw police raids on the president’s personal attorney, confusion over Syria policy, presidential pardon of another convicted criminal, announced resignation of House Speaker Paul Ryan and a former FBI director calling the president a mob boss and the president calling him a slime ball.

Once a global beacon of enlightenment and hope, the U.S. is a wounded and confused state stumbling along a crooked path through a cultural, political and moral swamp. It is a nation that has lost its way.

Many blame Humpty Trumpty, the most psychologically unfit person ever elected U.S. president, but he is only a historical footnote. The descent began long before him, back in the 1960s that saw the assassinations of the Kennedys and King, the civil rights wars, Viet Nam, the cultural wars between liberals and conservatives and growing class inequalities.

The United States is no longer united. The bipartisanship that saw people work together to build the American dream has evaporated, leaving a void being filled by brainless noise and moral apathy.

Having lost the will to work together Americans never will solve the problems that are destroying their society: gun violence, deep-seated racism, a drug addiction and mental health epidemic and widening chasms of inequality.

Lost also is the will to shoulder the heavy responsibilities of leader of the free world. Considering the state of the nation, that probably is a good thing.

A major difference between Canadians and Americans is how they view compromise. Canadians are seen as a people who try to resolve conflicts through conciliation and compromise. Our willingness to compromise has been criticized as showing ambiguity and weakness - an inability to take a firm stand – but it is a valuable part of our culture.

Americans see compromise as losing. When you compromise, the other side wins and that attitude is particularly evident in U.S. politics.

Without a willingness to compromise the next option is force, which often leads to violence. The world has seen the U.S. in that movie many times.

The past two weeks have allowed us to see the best qualities of Canadians while witnessing the worst of America.

We should not be smug, however. Canadians are different from Americans but they are close neighbours and it is easy to take on their ways, good and bad.

Humboldt showed us who we are and why. We need to remember that.

Email: shaman@vianet.ca
Profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8FY3Y